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boot to metal. The singed cabinet flew several feet before settling next to the melted bed mattress.
    “Not a smart move, Colton.”
    Josh stood at what was left of the doorway, peering into the room, his half-smile further irritating Reese.
    “Fuck you, Burkett.”
    “Thanks for the offer, but I prefer Hope’s soft curves to your ugly mug.” Josh stepped into the space and looked around. “Find anything up here?”
    “Nothing obvious. You?”
    “You saw the artifacts downstairs, but nothing that screamed, ‘I’m your answer’ . I suspect if it was our suspect, they took whatever they were looking for or simply burned any evidence in the office.”
    It had been the vampire currently sifting through the remnants of the charred bedroom who’d recruited Reese five decades ago into the underground vampire military operation. The Rogue Investigative Seizure and Elimination Network , better known as RISEN , had been formed in the United States by the vampire tribunal during prohibition. Their classified operations were highly secretive and few vamps outside the RISEN ranks even knew of its existence.
    RISEN kept a presence everywhere vampires congregated. The acronym was tongue and cheek, but their mission was dead serious. RISEN worked to help vampires blend in with the human population and when necessary, control rogues who broke the unwritten codes set forth by the vampire tribunal. Not the least of which was learning to live on animal blood or feeding without killing or turning mortals into bloodthirsty creatures of the night. Reese himself hadn’t touched human blood since joining the RISEN ranks.
    It was Glenn Karr who had alerted the tribunal a little over a year ago to the number of vampire deaths occurring in the California mountains. Their bodies had been burned beyond recognition, in fires that had all been ruled accidental. There weren’t many ways to kill an immortal, but searing the flesh from their bones certainly guaranteed a final end. The tribunal had acted immediately, planting Josh and Reese in the local fire department in hopes of getting closer to any evidence that would bring down the murderer.
    Reese had been happy to answer the call. Glenn Karr was a hero to many. Well known throughout the vampire population as a kind and gentle mentor, he’d been there for Reese in the late eighteenth century. Pulled into a swamp and gorged on by several vampires, Reese had been near death when Glenn fought them off and took him back to his cabin. It had been Glenn’s own blood that pulled Reese from the arms of death into immortality. And though the years had been dragging recently, Reese was mostly satisfied with his life now that he was doing something worthwhile for RISEN.
    But Josh and Reese hadn’t discovered any new information and RISEN had thrown Ronan Nason, a new recruit, into the mix six months ago. With his chemistry background, it had only made sense to put him undercover at the university working with the professor and Alex.
    Alex. No doubt the woman would be devastated by the professor’s death. The two of them had been working for years to perfect the blood wine vampires in town had come to depend upon. Derived from the blood of pigs that Glenn raised, the three of them were close to mass producing the product. The tribunal had great hopes it would be the answer to human blood consumption for the entire vampire population.
    “Fire marshal come to any conclusions?” Reese asked.
    Josh finished searching the desk, apparently coming up empty. “Accidental, like the others. Coroner’s got the body now. Preliminary findings indicate the professor stumbled and hit his head. The fire definitely ignited from the fireplace in the office either before or after the man passed out. They suspect he may have been trying to extinguish it when he either fell or something dropped on him.”
    Reese looked at Josh knowingly. This fire had been set deliberately, but without evidence of an accelerant, the